There is an interesting article available on CNN.com titled How Schools Stifle Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. It also includes a video of a talk Sir Robinson gave at the 2006 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. Sir Robinson speaks of how educational institutions often stifle the creativity of students. The following are some statements that Sir Robinson makes in the article.
“What is the argument? In a nutshell, it's that we're all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially education, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster.”
“In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests.”
“It happens in part because the dominant systems of education are rooted in the values and demands of industrialism: they are linear, mechanistic and focused on conformity and standardization. Nowadays, they're buttressed by major commercial interests in mass testing and by the indiscriminate use of prescription drugs that keep students' minds from wandering to things they naturally find more interesting.”
“There's a wealth of talent that lies in all of us. All of us, including those who work in schools, must nurture creativity systematically and not kill it unwittingly.”
I-SS must follow State and Federal regulations, but in the last several years the administration has put in place a ‘one size fits all’ application of the Baldrige plan. This has forced teachers to comply with an I-SS mandated standardized mechanism of PAs, PDSAs, formative assessments, PLCs, IF lead meetings, plus/deltas, and the like. Teachers are left with little time or energy to truly promote student creativity.
At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, two teachers gave enthusiastic presentations of how they use Predictive Assessments in their classrooms. I am glad that these teachers have been able to integrate this mechanism in their classrooms and use it to enable their students to succeed. The problem is that the Board members and the administrators see these presentations and think that since this instructional method is working in these classrooms, then it should work in all classrooms. Educational studies have shown that teachers need the freedom to use whatever instructional methods best suit the strengths and talents of their students. These two teachers were invited to speak at the Committee of the Whole meeting. There are many I-SS teachers who successfully use other instructional approaches to inspire their students to learn. Why doesn’t the administration invite them to speak at School Board meetings?
Click on the link below to access Sir Robinson’s article and video.
The BOE or the administration still wants it to be their way or no way. It is all about how things are perceived and " the Emperor's New Clothes" continues.
ReplyDeleteThe administration will never ask teachers who don't agree with the processes to speak to the board. That would give truth to all the talk that is out there about the way teachers really feel about all the "Baldrige" stuff.
ReplyDeleteJaney ,It is a fact that the teachers who teach using Baldrige have been forced into a corner and that is what one must do to survive. It is a giant monster who has evolved and we do not have a dragon slayer who will destroy the monster. He has taken over and become a life of its own. They just tip toe around and keep it going, pretending all along that it is the cure all for what ails us as a school system. It is the greatest BS that we have ever seen. They will not drop a thing but continue to add to it. Eventually it will blow up.
ReplyDeleteConsider the survey. We teachers wanted the survey the principals took. We are getting a watered down version. Why? Are they so afraid of the answers that will come from the teachers?
ReplyDeleteThat means we are not getting equal rights.
Did you expect equal rights? We get no say in professional development, SIT, school improvement plans, when we teach objectives, how to teach, etc. Did anyone really think we would get any say in Baldridge?
ReplyDeleteYou do know that predictive assessments arose out of No Child Left Behind, and not Baldrige. Right? Right? Oh, that's right, you don't, because you don't know what you're talking about most of the time. I will say this, though: This blog is a veritable font of misinformation. Thanks, Janey. You're the main misinformed person here. Maybe that's why you were forced out of the profession. Oh, wait - I forgot - some of our readers didn't know that!
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you got the idea that I was forced out of teaching but I choose to leave on my own. My evaluations were always good as were my test scores. I left because I had lost the joy of teaching that I once had. I-SS killed it for me. I know that there are alot of teachers out there who feel the same way. Some left for other systems to try and regain that joy and they have told me that it has come back and that they now enjoy teaching again. Others retired early as I did. Others are sticking it out and waiting out their time until they can retire. I made it 27 years. Wish it could have been longer but I am enjoying retirement spending time with my grandchild and volunteering in the schools each week.
ReplyDeleteWay to go 11/4, 10:13!! I'm tired of the posts on here that act as if what we do is anything but good, solid teaching practices.
ReplyDeleteJaney, thank you for taking the time to help those still struggling to find joy in teaching. I fear that if creativity in the classroom is allowed to whither and die, all that will be coming out of schools will be boring/bored "A,B,C, or D?" regurgitators.
ReplyDeleteWhat is happening to the children of I-SS--- to our country's future is a crying shame.
The education of a child should not be to provide a brick at the bottom of the corporate pyramid (see the pyramid on the dollar bill)....
The USA needs problem solvers, critical thinkers----not more cogs for the fat, greedy corporate machine.
Those that cannot see will continue to not see. Those are the ones who do not work with students continually. They can regugitate everything over and over,and blame everything on NCLB. They will never face the facts.
ReplyDeleteThe classroom teachers are the ones who teach the whole chid and those others do not. They just try to have a reason for a position. They are just there.
child misspelled above
ReplyDeleteI really don't know why 10:13 thinks that predicative assessments came from NCLB. I have spoken to teachers in several systems around us and they all say that they don't do predicative assessments. K-2 teachers do the state mandated k-2 assesment and the other grades do their normal weekly testing on subjects plus the end-of-year testing. NCLB says that the system must have some way of measuring student growth. It doesn't say how often or what kind of testing is required.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at other districts most have some type of formal assessment in place even if they don't call them predictive assessments. I don't see what the big deal is, they take place 3 times a year.
ReplyDeleteI want to know what systems and what the tests are called.
ReplyDeleteLots of our principals and teachers came in with Baldrige. That is what they know. They need to learn to change as the rest of us had to when Baldrige techniques came in. Adapting and changing is what education is all about. If our students are to really learn , then we change with the students. Technology continually changes and we have to change with it. If it is continuous improvement ,then education must change so that it does not stagnant.
ReplyDeletemeant to say "that it does not become stagnant".
ReplyDelete